08 Jul Ah, Push it. Push it real good.

Salacious titles aside, you should be doing it. You should be doing it now. What is it we speak of? Web push notifications.

That’s the end of the unnecessary innuendo. Your customers only get ’em if they want ’em. Once they subscribe, you can reach your best people on desktops, laptops, tablets, and/or smartphones with a simple click.

Web push notifications aren’t for everyone, used incorrectly they could end up being annoying. Used properly, for the right small business, they can increase sales and build customer loyalty.

The OneSignal notification permission request at boom12.ca

For testing purposes, we’ve been using OneSignal which offers a robust solution at no cost for most small businesses. Your visitors will be prompted to subscribe to notifications, so there’s no risk of annoying people who don’t want to receive notifications.

As mentioned, once implemented, when someone visits your website they will be prompted to subscribe to notifications.

Once subscribed, they will get a thank you message. The message, like the whole process, is ready for use out-of-the-box. However, if you choose to, you can customize this and all other features of the subscription and notification process with ease.

Once you’re set-up and you have subscribers, you can start sending notifications. You’ll want to keep an eye on a few things as you find your groove.

A sample notification for this post!

First, don’t annoy your subscribers. Keep an eye on how often you are sending notifications. Second, watch your clicks. If you send notifications and people see them but they don’t click them you might have a content problem. Your people should be interested in what you’re sending. Third, watch for unsubscribes. If you’re sending too often or if what you’re sending isn’t interesting, people will bail.

Try different types of notifications. You can share your most recent posts, special offers, updates, or anything you can think of! It’s easy and it’s going to a captive audience. You’ll soon know what works best and you’ll be rocking your new notification game.

Check out the OneSignal offering on the web pushpage on their site and sign-up for free to get started.

We do not receive any payment or compensation and we are in no way affiliated with OneSignal. We like the product and we’re sharing it with you because we thought you might like it too.